The Athletic Potential Podcast
The Athletic Potential Podcast is your place to come and get answers to your athletic development questions. We cover a range of topics all related to getting you to achieve your athletic goals so that you can experience and enjoy the athletic career that you desire. Hosted by Mike Mathews, a physical therapist and strength coach, answers will be a blend of what has worked for those in the past as well as what the research world has to say. Topics will include sports performance training, rehabilitation, injury prevention, speed and agility training, and power development. Interviews with athletes will help to provide examples that will help you know what steps to take so that you can go and perform in your sport at the highest level. Come listen and lets achieve your maximum athletic potential!
The Athletic Potential Podcast
062: Athlete Recovery After Pitching & How to Handle a Shoulder Injury
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This Athletic Potential Podcast episode answers two questions about recovery and injury. For a softball pitcher who isn’t recovering well, the host recommends prioritizing hydration and real food within 30–45 minutes post-outing, then maximizing sleep, using light movement like walking to promote blood flow, limiting passive sitting, avoiding post-game ice because it decreases blood flow, and being cautious with hot tubs due to dehydration risk (10 minutes max if used, then rehydrate). He suggests non-fatiguing electrical muscle stimulation for 45 minutes to two hours (e.g., Marc Pro or Compex recovery settings) to aid recovery, especially when time is short. For handling a shoulder injury, he emphasizes understanding how it happened and what structures are involved, maximizing blood flow (movement, heat if aching, e-stim), avoiding anti-inflammatories and RICE, keeping pain at 3/10 or less, then gradually reloading and field-testing until fully returned.
Marc Pro Promo Code: POTENTIAL
00:00 Healing And Recovery Intro
01:00 Listener Question Setup
02:43 Pitching Recovery Context
03:57 Hydration And Food First
05:52 Sleep And Phone Habits
06:54 Blood Flow Recovery Basics
08:42 Walks Hot Tubs And Rest
11:06 Why Ice Slows Healing
12:29 RICE Protocol Critique
14:47 Recovery Tech And E Stim
17:18 Compex Vs Mark Pro
18:26 Mark Pro vs Budget Units
18:58 Affiliate Code and Savings
19:52 Tournament Recovery Checklist
22:21 Switching to Injury Q&A
22:50 Injury Basics Blood Flow
23:59 Pain Rules and Movement
26:03 Inflammation Not Ibuprofen
27:38 Loading and Wolff Law
29:44 Progression and Field Tests
34:16 No RICE for Shoulders
35:46 Wrap Up and Submit Questions
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